The Swan Prince
by Ever-the-Optimist
Summary: With the threat of war looming and his self-imposed isolation after the loss of someone special, Naruto didn't have time to be swimming with the inhabitants of the local lake.  But there was something very familiar about that swan.


**There are two very important things you should know before starting this story.**

**1. A few weeks ago, I cut myself shaving. And by cut, I mean sliced the hell out of my femoral artery, resulting in a very awkward trip to the ER. Luckily for me, one of my professors was doing his rounds and was able to convince the rest of the staff that I'm not suicidal. But, rules are rules, and I now have to go see a psych doctor to have them sign off that I'm not crazy. Of course, psych doctor took one look at me, laughed, and put me down for regular visits. Other, the jerkface, thinks that this is a wonderful opportunity since I apparently have "unresolved issues." Long story short, my limited writing time just became scarcer. But, I promise I will finish anything I start; and I have several ideas in my head I want to get down still. So I'm not going anywhere- but updates may come slow.**

**2. This story is based on the ballet Swan Lake. But not the Swan Lake you know. Because I'm a dance nerd, this piece is based off a ballet done by Matthew Bourne as his own version of Swan Lake in which both the swan and the prince are males and yes, it is still a piece about forbidden love. It is very, very good and I highly recommend it. Youtube it; you won't be disappointed. But, he didn't change the ending- it's still a tragedy. So I had to throw some Disney in there too because, as mentioned, I'm a sucker for happy endings. **

**So, with that being said, I hope that you enjoy this story. Feedback, as always, is greatly appreciated. **

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**Chapter One: My Childhood Obsession**

Sasuke scowled at the little boy across from him. This was supposed to be a prince? He looked more like a scared rabbit. The boy's mother, the Queen of the Kingdom to the East, attempted to remove her skirts from his grasp to little avail.

"Naruto, darling, come out and say hello to Prince Sasuke." The little mouse, Naruto apparently, only hid further behind his mother. Sasuke's scowl deepened.

A long time ago, there had been a war. Many still did not know how it started. It lasted for many years, and a great deal happened during the war, but the long and short of it was that the kingdom of Konoha had been divided into, simply, the Kingdom of the East and the Kingdom of the West. Sasuke's great-great-great Grandfather had been the leading general of the West's side of the war and had been "promoted" to King at the end. This Naruto's great-great-great Grandfather had been the leading general of the East and blah blah blah became King. There had been several attempts to reunite the once proud Kingdom of Konoha since the end of that war, but with no success. And it seemed like this attempt was about to fail as well. Both kingdoms had rejoiced when both royal families had given birth to princes at around the same time. The hope was that the two children would at least become friends, making the dream of reunification a possibility, but this first meeting wasn't going as well as planned.

Sasuke huffed and crossed his arms across his chest before looking back in exasperation at his father. His father scowled back at him, but otherwise said nothing. His mother cleared her throat and kneeled down next to him. "Perhaps, Sasuke, you should introduce yourself to little Naruto." Sasuke would have liked to tell his mother that he'd rather eat a toad, but one didn't back-talk the Queen, whether or not she was your mother, so he moved forward to force the little idiot out from behind his mother. His mother stopped him with a hand on his shoulder and gently uncrossed his arms. "Remember Sasuke, you can catch more flies with honey than vinegar."

That phrase had never made sense to Sasuke. Why would he want to catch flies? But he understood what his mother wanted him to do, so he forced himself to relax and moved closer to the cowering child. The little idiot actually squeaked and covered his face with the hem of his mother's skirt. Sasuke rolled his eyes, but he bowed low anyway as he introduced himself. "My name is Sasuke, Prince of the Kingdom of the West." No response. Sasuke waited patiently for the skirt to lower just enough that he could see one shocking blue eye. "And now it's your turn, moron."

His mother gasped and his father scolded him with a barking "Sasuke!" but the reaction the insult got from Naruto was instantaneous. He threw his cloth shield away from him, nearly tripping his mother, and ran forward to push his face in Sasuke's.

"I'm not a moron, you…you…jerk!"

"Naruto!" his mother cried out. Sasuke ignored her.

"Really? You sure are acting like it. Are you positive you aren't a moron?" Naruto gapped like a fish for a moment before he threw a punch at Sasuke's face. Sasuke caught the fist, but the momentum sent them both tumbling to the ground. Naruto tried to pull his hand away from Sasuke, but Sasuke held on. He grunted when one of Naruto's knees hit his stomach and, using Naruto's weight above him, he flipped the struggling child over his head. He heard Naruto land on his back above him and quickly rolled over and pushed to his feet, ready for another attack. He didn't have to wait long; Naruto was running forward, tackling him around his middle and sending them to the ground again. Sasuke made a fist and pounded on Naruto's back a couple of times, but a strong hand was there, pulling a struggling Naruto away from him and revealing his parents' disapproving faces. His father gripped his bicep and yanked him off the ground.

As he was being led from the room, his family following closely behind Naruto's, he heard Naruto's father chuckle. "Well, that went well."

* * *

"This is all your fault."

"Shh."

"Don't shush me! I shouldn't be punished for you being a jerk."

"Shh!"

"I'm completely innocent!"

Sasuke huffed and turned in his seat to face Naruto in his corner. "Naruto, we're in time-out. We aren't supposed to be talking, so be quiet." Naruto craned his neck to stick his tongue out at Sasuke before going back to staring at the wall. Satisfied that the idiot was going to be quiet, Sasuke returned to sitting correctly in his seat. A few blissfully silent moments passed and then Naruto spoke again, small and hesitant.

"Why were you mean to me anyway?" Sasuke considered telling him to be quiet again, but he figured that he wouldn't stop talking until he got his answers.

"Because you were cowering behind your mother. No self-respecting prince cowers behind his mother." Sasuke heard a squeaking from the neighboring corner and turned slightly to see Naruto scowling at him in confusion. "You don't know what that means, do you?"

"I do too!" came the immediate response. Sasuke refrained from rolling his eyes and waited and watched as Naruto scuffed his toes across the floor as he swung his legs. "But… your meaning might mean something different than mine."

Sasuke sighed again and leveled his glare in Naruto's direction. "It means you were hiding. Princes don't hide."

"Like it's my fault!" Sasuke quirked an eyebrow that very pointedly said that it was Naruto's fault, so Naruto decided to elaborate. "You walked in scowling at me and snarling and looking like you were ready for war. Mom told me that you were supposed to be my friend," Naruto pouted for added effect. Sasuke was loath to admit that his own scowl softened at that. "But you didn't look very friendly. You didn't look like you wanted to be my friend."

Sasuke narrowed his eyes before he turned back to face his corner. Behind him, he heard Naruto's chair squeak as well and assumed that Naruto had returned to pouting at the wall. Sasuke supposed Naruto had a point- he hadn't wanted to be friends with the neighboring little prince. He had been dragged away from his books on a three day journey and plopped down in front of the little idiot and been told to make nice, so it was just possible he had looked a little surly. And Sasuke was no fool; he knew how important it was for he and Naruto to become friends. So he huffed and stood from his chair to cross over to Naruto's corner.

"You're right. I apologize for my behavior earlier." He bowed low again and when he righted himself, he smirked at Naruto's shocked expression. "I suppose my behavior wasn't any more princely than yours." Naruto eyed him suspiciously. Sasuke sighed and grit his teeth. "I would like very much to be your friend."

"Why?" It was an innocent enough question, but it still took Sasuke aback. He considered telling him that it was because he _wanted_ to be the little idiot's friends, but he had been taught not to lie. He glanced around the play room quickly before he noticed a table with blocks on it. Motioning to Naruto, he moved over to the table and quickly divided the blocks in half, pushing half towards Naruto and pulling the other half closer to him.

"You understand that our parents don't get along, right?" A quick nod, but Sasuke noticed Naruto's attention quickly fading as he started to stack his blocks. "Pay attention please. Now, if these blocks represent resources," a blank look was shot towards him and Sasuke thought quickly back to his tutor's explanation before continuing, "food, building materials and stuff."

"Oh."

"And those," a vague motion to the little fort that Naruto had built, "are your kingdom's stuff and these," another vague motion towards his own half, "are mine. Now, we can build stuff with the blocks we have, but imagine if we shared blocks. We could make bigger forts."

"Okay." Sasuke could tell he was losing Naruto fast. The other boy was now crashing blocks into each other. Sasuke ran a hand through his hair in agitation. The things he did for his kingdom.

"What I'm trying to say is that both the East and West Kingdoms would be better off if we shared."

"Why don't we?"

Sasuke didn't feel like going into a history lesson, especially when the child should have already learned all this. So he decided to go with the abridged version. "Because our parents don't like each other. But," Sasuke was quick to go on before Naruto could interrupt again, "they want what's best for their kingdoms. That's why there's a truce right now. But, they're concerned that the truce won't last. Which is why they want us to be friends."

Sasuke didn't know how much his little analogy actually sank in to the child's thick skull. He waited for the line of questions and arguments and he didn't know what else. So, it was much to his surprise when Naruto pushed one of his blocks towards Sasuke's pile. "So it'll be easier to share our blocks, right?"

For the first time since coming to the Kingdom of the East, Sasuke grinned. "Right."

* * *

Narrowed eyes surveyed the disgusting scene before them. To say that Sasuke was displeased would be an understatement. It was his weekend to see Naruto and this…person…was using up his time. It had been seven years since their tentative friendship first formed, and now, at twelve, Sasuke was beginning to think that a weekend every few months would never be enough for him. He had begun to treasure those few days with Naruto while their parents discussed politics. And now this little stuttering, blushing girl was stuttering and blushing at his Naruto on his time. It wasn't to be born.

"Pardon me." It was enough to catch Naruto's attention and send the girl scurrying out of the room.

"Sasuke! When'd you get in?"

"Just now. Who was that?"

Naruto looked around the room for a moment before turning a confused expression back to Sasuke. "Who was who?"

Sasuke mentally grinned to himself before he shrugged. "Never mind then. What do you want to do first?"

Three days later, and Sasuke was getting ready to leave for home. His only consolation was Naruto's apparent displeasure at Sasuke's departure. Naruto had already hid Sasuke's suitcase, dumped paint on the Uchihas' steward, and let the carriage's horse team loose. Now, all of Naruto's delay tactics had been dealt with and the Uchihas were all packed up to leave. The only thing left to do was to say good-bye to his friend. If he could find him. Naruto had a bad habit of hiding when he knew Sasuke was going to leave.

Sasuke finally found Naruto hiding under the table in the play room. Sasuke sighed and walked over to kneel down to Naruto's eye level. "Naruto, we need to leave."

"You don't have to. You should stay." Sasuke shook his head. Naruto's eyes narrowed and he tilted his head back to look down his nose at Sasuke. "Stay," he ordered. Sasuke chuckled.

"Nice try, Naruto. That almost sounded convincing. Keep practicing and you'll make a prince yet," Sasuke teased. Naruto released his breath and took Sasuke's offered hand to crawl out from underneath the table. Sasuke prolonged to touch, brushing his thumb over Naruto's knuckles.

An idea was beginning to form in Sasuke's mind, ever since he'd seen that girl touching Naruto's cheek at the beginning of his weekend stay. Now seemed as good at time as any to bring it up. "You don't want me to go?"

Naruto shook his head. "No. I'll miss you."

"I'll miss you too. But, I've been thinking; do you remember my analogy as to why we should be friends?"

"Yea. About sharing blocks and stuff, right?"

"Right. But, imagine how much better it would be if instead of _sharing_ we pooled our resources. We'd be able to build a lot better fort with all of the blocks than just some of them."

Naruto narrowed his eyes suspiciously. "You'd want me to give you all my blocks?"

"No!" Sasuke was quick to amend. The last thing he wanted to do was to start another war because of a failed proposal. "What I mean is that if we were, say for example, married, then what was mine would be yours and what was yours would be mine. We could unite the two kingdoms and be a united front." Sasuke said it causally, keeping it nonchalant as if it wasn't such a big deal. Inside, Sasuke was squirming uncomfortably.

"Are you asking me to marry you?" Yes, that was definitely a suspicious look on Naruto's face.

"Not right now. When we're older. And," Sasuke added carefully, "if we were married, then I wouldn't have to leave."

"Oh." Naruto glanced down at the ground and toed at the edge of the rug. "How old?"

Sasuke thought about it. "Well, eighteen at the earliest. That's the norm for marriages of our situation."

Naruto got a pained look on his face that concerned Sasuke momentarily before he realized that Naruto was trying to do mental math. "Well, I'm twelve now. So that's six years?"

"Very good. Yes, that's six years."

"That's a long time from now."

Sasuke nodded slowly, curious as to Naruto's thought process. "Yes, I suppose it could be seen as a long time."

"Well, I might forget by then. So you'll need to ask me again in six years." And then Naruto smiled at him and Sasuke couldn't help but to grin back.

* * *

Naruto didn't know what it was that woke him; all he knew was that one moment he was sleeping soundly and the next he was sitting straight up in bed. There was a terrible storm raging outside, so Naruto at first thought it was the lightning. That was before he realized that the eyes staring back at him from his window weren't from his reflection.

He strangled back a scream before the next flash of lightning revealed that the eyes belonged to a swan. A beautiful black swan. Naruto stared back at the creature before the raised voices coming from somewhere in the castle caused him to break the gaze to cast a curious look at his door. By the time he flicked his eyes back to the window, the swan was gone.

Curiosity about the voices coming down the hallway outweighed his curiosity about the mysterious bird, so Naruto slipped out of his bed and out of his room.

Naruto carefully peaked around the corner of his father's study. It was packed with all of his father's generals and advisors. Naruto had never seen anything like it.

"Who will succeed to the throne?"

"The heir's body was not found, so it will be assumed that he is still alive. The regent then will take over until the heir can be determined dead or alive."

"Who is the regent?"

"A great uncle. A complete psycho." There was a sigh, and then the advisor continued. "If he takes the throne in the absence of the true heir, he will lead our countries to war."

"And if the child is found dead?"

"With no heir, the kingdom would fall into our control."

Someone in the room chuckled, deep and foreboding. "Let us hope that the child is dead, then."

Naruto's father sighed heavily. "I would never wish any child to be dead. He is a dear friend of Naruto's. Let us hope he is found, safe and alive."

A scoff came from one of the generals. "I wouldn't count on it. The Uchiha's were brutally murdered. Young Sasuke probably met the same fate. My wager is that he is long dead."

"No!" All eyes turned from their meeting to see Naruto running into the room. He was crying hard as he ran to his father. "Sasuke's not dead! You have to find him!"

A pained look crossed the King's face before he motioned for his Queen to remove Naruto from his leg. "I'm sorry Naruto. It's not looking good for your friend."

Naruto kicked and struggled against his mother's strong arms. "He's not dead! He said he was going to marry me! You have to bring him back."

A shocked silence settled the room as Naruto yielded to his mother and sobbed into her neck. She whispered soothing words into Naruto's hair.

"I'm sorry Baby. So, so sorry." She kept up her lineage of apologies as she guided Naruto out of the room and back to his bedroom. Her words of comfort didn't ease the pain in Naruto's chest or the firm belief that Sasuke had to still be alive. Somewhere. Sasuke couldn't be dead.

Even as his mother explained to him that the Uchiha carriage had been attacked on the way back to their kingdom, that both the King and Queen of the Kingdom of the West were dead and that Sasuke was nowhere to be found, that there were search parties out looking for him now, but that it didn't look good and that he had to be strong and prepare himself for the worse, Naruto knew Sasuke wasn't dead.

His mother finally gave up and tucked Naruto into bed, telling him that she hoped that he was right, that time would tell if Sasuke would come back to him. She then had the nerve to kiss his head and tell him to have pleasant dreams. Naruto would have liked to have thrown something at her.

As it was, Naruto slept fitfully that night, his dreams plagued by black swans flying towards him.


End file.
